About

‘A choreographic provocateur’ (Luc Jennings, The Observer)

I am a performance-maker working between and across disciplines, primarily in dance, live art and contemporary theatre. I work both as an independent artist and also with a company of artist-collaborators known as PanicLab. My work is produced by creative producer Clara Giraud .

I always have several projects on the go – I work best when I am over stimulated and challenged – and so the subject and focus of my work is often shifting. At the moment my main performance interests are:

Hidden Histories and Contemporary Politics:
Driving a great deal of my work is my interest in storytelling, especially minor histories and counter narratives. I draw inspiration from queer, feminist and subcultural archives to question issues around bodies, subjectivity and political agency.

Becoming an Action Hero:
Over the past couple years I have developed a fascination with fighting and ‘action’. This interest developed out of a number of places: my exploration of physical languages beyond ‘dance,’ my love of comic books (primarily X-Men), and research around violence and agency. I have pursued this interest in a number of projects and undergone intensive training in different fighting styles, including: pro wrestling, mixed martial arts and taekwondo.

David Zambrano’s Flying Low/Passing Through:
I was introduced to Zambrano’s technique by choreographer and close collaborator Leila McMillan, who studied it extensively with Zambrano and now teaches it around the UK. I have co-organised workshops with Leila and Clara Giraud throughout the past year, developing a core group of dancers well versed in the technique. This has become a kind of shared language from which much of my choreographic and physical work is developed.

PanicLab

PanicLab was started by Clara Giraud and myself to produce and create the projects we are working on with a regular company of collaborators. It was created to make a distinction between my individual, impendent projects (such as Giselle, or I’m too Horny to be a Prince or Take it Like a Man with jamie lewis hadley) and the work that the group of collaborators is doing as a collective of artists.

The company produces contemporary performance (mainly theatre and dance) often using the personal as a starting point. As a group, PanicLab is passionate about performance that is raw, honest, extraordinary and humble. The work the company makes is political, personal, serious yet with a good dose of humour. It is accessible to a wide audience, and unpretentious. It is always devised and necessarily collaborative.

Training and Education

I currently completing my PhD at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where I received my MA in Advanced Theatre Pratcice (Directing). I hold a BFA in Playwriting from Concordia University, Montreal. I trained in dance at the School of Alberta Ballet with Murray and Nancy Kilgour.

I teach movement and lecture on performance research, queer politics and contemporary theatre practices at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.